"Strength of luck" and its cognitional background

Abstract

In Japan, the term "strength of luck" (as directly translated from Japanese) commonly refers to a fixed dispositional trait. In order to gain a more concrete understanding of the usage of the term "strength of luck," a questionnaire was designed and survey conducted of subjects to study the belief that some people have "strong luck" and others have "weak luck." The results showed that people who see themselves as having "strong luck" differ from those who see themselves as having "weak luck" in that : 1. They believe that they have many "lucky" experiences and few "unlucky" experiences. 2. Most of these "lucky" experiences occurred in "important situations." There was no difference between people who see themselves as having "strong luck" and those who see themselves as having "weak luck" when the occurrence probability of the event was considered low from the start. 3. They think that their "strength of luck" is correlated with their amount of effort. 4. It wasquite rare for them to make social comparisons. On the other hand, according to these results, people who see themselves as having "weak luck" don't necessarily feel they have few successful experiences in daily life, nor did they feel helpless. It was concluded that how one interprets one's own "strength of luck" is based on particular "lucky" and/or "unlucky" experiences.View full abstract